Reel to Reel

Every time the soil reliver is called into action, I marvel at the engineering involved in its conception.  This piece of equipment takes a tremendous amount of abuse as its sole job is to hammer the ground and fracture the soil structure. It also does a nice job of finding rocks.  The picture below is a rock unearthed from 7 fairway. Below is a picture of two aerification tines.  The one on the left is a brand new 14" long tine, the one on the right is a  9" used tine after 13 hours of aerification. Fairways 1-10 & 18 were aerified this week, which is... ...644,071 square feet of fairways (62% of our total fairway square footage). ...2,576,284 aerification holes.

It has been an extremely productive start to the week.  We have completed the finish grade work, seeded, and spread aerification plugs over the new nursery located between #5 and #7.  Additionally, deep-tine aerification has begun on fairways.  This is a tedious process as we are aerifying at a speed of 1.5 mph to achieve the proper spacing between aerification holes.  To put this in perspective, #5 fairway which measures 87,129 square feet took 3.5 hours to aerify.  The 10" holes created help alleviate the normal compaction that happens throughout the golf season from cart and maintenance traffic.  After the fairways are aerified, they are rolled, blown and mowed. Tees were verticut this week and we are in the process of aerifying those today.  Throughout the season, turf growth creates organic matter.  Cultural practices such as verticutting and aerification help reduce organic matter accumulation and keep the playing surfaces firm and fast.

Green expansion will be a major component of the renovation project.  In order to match our existing turf on the greens, we are growing sod on property.   We recently expanded our sod nursery on the east side of #3.  The nursery will be 15,000 square feet in size. We are seeding the nursery with bentgrass and supplementing with poa annua aerification plugs. The nursery was seeded on 8/31.  The seed quickly germinated 5 days after seeding.  This photo was taken 9/5. The nursery has really progressed in the last week.  These photos were taken 9/14, 14 days after seeding. This week, we started construction on a secondary sod nursery located between #5 and #7, just south of the maintenance road.  This nursery will be 11,000 square feet in size and will also be used for greens sod during the project.  It will be constructed in the same manner.

It is hard to believe it is mid-September, the golf season seems to progress faster every year.  Despite the weather extremes which seem to be the new normal, this season has run smoothly.  From a playability standpoint, the golf course has been truly consistent.  The maintenance team has been focused on details and our efforts have been directed towards enhancing the golf experience. The new staff members we added this year have fit in perfectly and our staff has never been stronger.  Each of them brings a unique dynamic to our team that really seems to complement one another.  Without their effort and dedication, we would not have seen the successes that we have this year. The year, however, has not gone without its challenges.  Annual bluegrass weevil (ABW), a new pest to southeast MI, was discovered on property earlier this summer.  The first confirmed case in MI was diagnosed last year at a local club.  This particular pest is a challenge to ...

Sunny skies and wind provided great drying conditions for the sand to be worked into the aerification holes. Over 3.4 million holes were created. They were then filled by blowing and sweeping the sand into them. As you can imagine, this is quite the tedious task. We have refined our methodology over the years and have developed a system that leaves the greens smooth and playable. I would expect the greens to heal in 7-10 days with the warm weather forecasted. Aerification Stats: on average, over 170,000 holes were created per green on average, over 2,600 lbs. of sand were used per green Aerification Benefits: compaction relief organic matter reduction deeper roots and healthier plants firmer and faster greens As a result of aerification and topdressing, the plants are healthier. In addition, they are better able to withstand the rigors of the growing season.

The recent sunrises have been a nice way to start the day.

It seems to be feast or famine with Mother Nature.  Rain accumulation since May 1 has totaled 5.4", and 4.3" of that has come over the last 17 days.  Prior to this, we had gone 22 days straight with no rain.  Needless to say, we have experienced the full spectrum of weather this year. Sunday night, storms ripped through the property leaving behind quite the mess.  A linden on the west side of #13 blew over as well as several large limbs and debris. debris on #9 fairway linden on west side of #13 hickory on the west side of #13 cherry on the east side of #3 blowing debris on #17 picking up debris on #7 blowing debris on #18 A big thank you to the staff for their tremendous effort in yesterday's clean up.

Greens aerification was finished last night ahead of schedule.  Perfect weather (sun, wind, and low humidity) allowed us to work the sand in much more efficiently than anticipated.  A huge thanks to the staff for their tremendous effort.   sand application to #18 green sand drying on #9 green aerifying #5 green aerifying #14 green rolling #18 green changing cup on #15 green finished product on #6 green 

 ...on the other side of 3.5" of rain.  The golf course has really greened up in the last couple days.  It still remains saturated from this week's storms.  We have been pumping water all week and have made great progress.  The rest will remain up to Mother Nature.  The extended forecast looks favorable for some drying in the days to come.  We are assessing conditions daily and will get carts on the course as soon as conditions merit.  It was dry enough today to strategically move around the course to prepare it for the weekend. Today's tasks include: mowing greens rolling greens cutting cups mowing tees, collars, and approaches raking bunkers opening course bathrooms mowing #5 green rolling #2 green raking #18 bunkers mowing #18 approach changing cups on #2