GREENSBORO COUNTRY CLUB GOLF AND GROUNDS MAINTENANCE: Farm Conversion

New Construction
The final day of our second week comes to an end today the same way our first few days started with rain shutting down the new construction taking place on hole #5. To date 6 out of 13 normally scheduled contractor days have been canceled due to rain so that part of the project continues to lag behind our original schedule. But despite the above average rainfall, we have made progress. The old green was cored out and the new green sub-floor was shaped in and approved by our architect, Billy Fuller, on Tuesday, May 30. The new contours are somewhat reversed from the original contours on the left side of the green. The new grades are now pitched towards the tee moderately at around 2%. Versus the old grade that pitched 3-5% away from the tee and to the left. This should result in an incoming shot that is much more receptive to holding close to its landing spot. The following two days were spent installing new drainage and adding a four-inch layer of gravel. On Friday and Saturday the contractor started adding the new mix but as of today, Monday 6/5, there is still ~40% of greens mix yet to go in.

Mix Removal

Billy Fuller Reviewing Final Sub-Grade

New Drain Pipe

4 Inch Gravel Layer Installed

New Mix Going In

With the current forecast, we expect Wednesday may be the next day before operations reinitiate. We are now looking at re-installing the old Bentgrass sod back onto the new surface early in the week of 6/12-6/15. We will allow one week for the new sod to stabilize and one week for the sod to be sprayed out after its re-installation to allow for a modified no-till planting. That puts us installing the new sprigs during the last week of June or possibly the first week of July. This will allow for a 6-7 week grow-in window before the course is slated to be re-opened. which will result in a much younger surface than the primary set of no-till greens on our Opening Day.

No-Till (Holes 1-4, 6-18 and Practice Green)

The really good news is the rains have had little effect on the no-till portion of the project. The greens went through an extensive preparation process and were sprigged one day later than originally scheduled. The Champion G12 sprigs were successfully planted on Thursday and Friday (6/1-6/2) and new leaf formation was noticeable on Sunday for the first set of greens that were planted on Thursday. We have some very unstable moisture in the atmosphere today and the only thing that could set us back now is a heavy thunderstorm that could wash the sprigs and force us to re-sprig damaged areas and continue our heavy water cycle for several days longer than without the occurrence of a storm. Moving forward on the no-till greens we expect to begin cutting the new grass in 17-21 days. We will be implementing some fairly standard practices of weekly fertilization, frequent topdressing and rolling as well as additional aerifications and grooming over the next several months in an effort to turn to the existing sprigged surface into a high quality putting surface.