Reel to Reel

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the month.

Over the last two weeks, we have been deep-tining fairways.  The process is pretty slow as the soil reliever is only 6 ft wide and we are traveling 1 mph to achieve tight spacing between the holes. For example: #3 fairway is a 530 yard par 5 and is 80 ft wide, and it takes about 6 hours to aerify.  Although the deep-tine aerification is a lengthy process, the benefits of 10" deep holes are unmatched.  The soil reliever not only creates deep holes, it shatters any compacted soil layers that exist.  This helps in providing a healthy environment for water to move through the soil profile and for the roots to thrive. Jose aerifying #9 fairway   close-up of 12"long tine

The heavy rain last week caused a washout of the retaining rock wall behind the tennis building.  Today, we worked on regrading the topography on the south side of hole #15. By reshaping the area, the rainfall will flow down #15 rough instead of toward the retaining rock wall. sand washed out from retaining wall view from above the retaining wall   rerouting surface water away from the retaining wall   Over the next couple of days, we will repair the retaining wall. 

We received just under an inch of rain last night.  It was a quick and heavy rain.  It came fast enough to wash out the majority of the bunkers. washout on #8 greenside bunker this morning Despite the poor weather this morning, we were able to put the bunkers back together and mow the greens, collars, approaches and fairways.  It turned out to be a beautiful day. #13 fairway  

Tee aerification is complete. The goal of tee aerification is to relieve compaction and dilute thatch.  If you recall from previous posts, thatch is a layer of organic matter that accumulates between the actively growing grass and soil.  It is important to manage thatch because excessive amounts can inhibit water and air movement to the roots, resulting in weak and unhealthy plants. When we aerify tees, we pull up 4" long cores of soil and let them sit on the tee surface to dry.  Once the cores are dry, we chop them up and drag the soil around the tee.  The soil helps dilute the thatch that is present.  We then blow off the tee for the final clean-up.  Below are a few photos illustrating the process. David aerifying #4 tee close-up of aerification cores   Brendan chopping the cores   David dragging in the soil   Myles blowing off the tee  

The greens have healed in beautifully from aerification.  Warm weather and timely rain have helped the healing process. Over the last couple of years, we have refined our aerification technique and continue to tweak and improve the process. I'm extremely pleased with how quick the greens recovered.  Below are a couple of post-aerification photos from #17 green, showing the same spot on the back right corner of the green on 8/29 and 9/2. #17 green - 7 days after aerification   #17 green - 3 days after aerification